09/28/2022
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about chronic back pain.
And for good reason.
When your back hurts, especially for a prolonged period of time, it’s really difficult to live the life you want to be living.
It’s not that you haven’t tried to find relief, it’s just that for many people the standard channels haven’t resulted in lasting relief.
If they did, you wouldn’t still be in pain.
You may feel better for a while, but the pain returns. Sound familiar?
The good news?
There’s a reason it hasn’t worked for you, and it has nothing to do with a lack of skill or expertise on the part of providers, or anything you’re doing.
It’s all about addressing the root causes of the pain.
“Root cause” = all of the reasons that you developed the pain in the first place.
No treatment is going to work long-term unless you address the underlying reasons you are in pain. You’ll just go back and forth between pain and short-term relief.
And the sad part is so many of us continue to go through this.
But, as I’ve said, most of us are capable of relieving the pain and getting back to our healthy, active life… if we shift our focus.
That’s all it takes.
You just need to make sure you avoid the mistakes we’ve talked about in earlier emails (here’s a quick recap).
Mistake #1. Reducing your physical activity in an attempt to “protect” your back.
Mistake #2. Believing you have a “bad back” that will never get better.
Mistake #3. Believing that your back is damaged (in nearly all cases, the pain is not because of damage).
Instead of continuing to make these and other mistakes, spend your time and effort on what matters… addressing and reversing the root causes of the pain.
Why You Need to Address the Root Causes of Back Pain
Remember the client experience I shared with you recently?
“I absolutely cannot believe that my back does not hurt anymore – especially seeing how I was in so much pain when we first met.”
Or this, from another client…
“I now look forward to doing things instead of making excuses as to why I cannot do them. Nor do I dread how my back will feel later. I’m thrilled — I feel like I’ve gotten my life back and then some!”
The reason these and other BACKCoach clients found relief is that they, step-by-step, learned the root causes of back pain and how to reverse them, then applied what they learned into their lives.
Cyndi C, from Minneapolis, shared the following after she ran a 10K with her father, a goal she initially had no confidence of achieving given the pain she was in when we first started working together.
“I used to say I can’t do that and now I simply decide when I am going to fit things into my schedule. I can now go back to being me.”
Here’s how you can get results like Cyndi…
In the BACKCoach Program, for each of the root causes of back pain, you will learn about it, decide how you will apply it into your life, set goals, take action, and… repeat for each root cause!
Let’s consider an example…
One of the primary risk factors for back pain is chronic stress. One way it works goes like this:
If in response to the pain, you’ve stopped being active and participating in activities you enjoy, the loss of that activity itself becomes an additional stressor.
As you sit on the sidelines, you may be thinking of what you’re missing out on.
You’re also missing the physical activity itself, which would’ve helped you relieve the physiological effects of stress.
Add to that a possible fear that this is how you’ll always be, that you’re damaged, that you’ll never get better. More stress.
Add this new stress to the common stressors most of us have… chronic stressors like keeping up with work, home, and other responsibilities.
You get the idea… there’s enough stress in life as it is. And having chronic pain can add to it.
So, what do you do about all of this stress?
First, you challenge your beliefs…
Are you really sure that you are damaged, that you won’t get better, that you shouldn’t be participating in activities?
If you can set your beliefs about your pain aside and just consider the possibility that they may not be true, you free yourself up to address your “regular” stress.
When addressing stress, you will need to address both the stressors themselves as well as your physiological response to stress.
Like… if you’re rushing out the door in a mad dash each morning, always running late, what changes can you make to your environment to make it easier to leave in the morning?
On the physiological side, can you practice a relaxation technique – progressive muscle relaxation works particularly well for chronic back pain – or start moving again with something enjoyable and easy such as a short walk?
You get the idea… Learn, Set a Goal, Take Action, Repeat.
If you follow this simple but effective process, by the time you’ve addressed it all, you will find that, over time, you shift from pain and activity restriction, back to the active life you’ve been missing.
The problem most of us experience is we don’t want to make changes and prefer a quick fix… which leaves us with temporary relief, but ultimately in pain again.
Of course, there is a lot more to relieving chronic back pain and resuming your desired activities than just addressing stress…
You’ll still need to learn about and address the other factors if you want to be done with the pain, once and for all.
Now that you have some idea of how the process works, you may still have questions like:
1. What are the other causes of back pain?
2. Will this work for me?
3. Why haven’t I heard about all of this before?
If you want answers to these questions and are ready to be walked through the exact process BACKCoach clients use to find relief and get back to an active life, I can help.
I’ve just put the finishing touches on a brand-new BACKCoaching + Course program that takes you through a proven, step-by-step process in which you will address each of the reasons your back continues to hurt.
It’s called BACKCoach: The Way BACK.
BACKCoach: The Way Back will be opening for new clients beginning tomorrow, Thursday, September 29th at 10:00 a.m. EST.
I’ll be posting all the details in the morning…
Keep an eye out for it…
See you tomorrow,
Mary
P. S… A quick action item for you: I want you to write a list of all of the things you will do when back pain no longer limits you.
It’ll be fun… think back on all of the activities you used to do and add a few new ones.
Then, circle or highlight the ONE THING that will make you the happiest.
Let me know what it is in the comments.
And always remember… You CAN Have a Healthy Back!
Mary
Mary Williams, MSEd
Biomechanist - Ergonomist - Health & Well-being Coach
Founder, BACKCoach, LLC
PS - Please forward this post if you know someone who has struggled with chronic back pain and is ready for a turnaround. Thanks!
